He helped bring the 2022 World Cup to Qatar at an estimated cost of $200 billion, a major coup for a country that had never qualified for the tournament.

Now at age 37, the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has run into a problem that money alone cannot solve.

Since June, tiny Qatar has been the target of a punishing air and sea boycott led by its largest neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Overnight, airplanes and cargo ships bound for Qatar were forced to change course, diplomatic ties were severed and Qatar’s only land border, a 40-mile stretch of desert with Saudi Arabia, slammed shut.

Not even animals were spared. Around 12,000 Qatari camels, peacefully grazing on Saudi land, were expelled, causing a stampede at the border.

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT Comment to the NYT.com

Amazing story, thank you DECLAN WALSH and TOMAS MUNITA. It is a complicated mess. One wonders, if the current situation might have been different with Hillary Clinton as president, instead of Twitter Drumpf. Nevertheless, as an unflappable optimist, I wonder if the US doesn’t have a greater opportunity, with this embargo, to play the ally with the largests airforce base in the area card, to encourage our ally Qatar and its neighbors towards peace, reconciliation, and sustainable economic development. Our military leadership knows that climate change is one of the greatest threats to world peace. If only they could reach the science denying clowns running the executive branch. David Lindsay Jr. is the author of “The Tay Son Rebellion, Historical Fiction of Eighteenth-century Vietnam,” and blogs at The TaySonRebellion.com and InconvenientNewsWorldwide.wordpress.com

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About David Lindsay Jr

David Lindsay is the author of "The Tay Son Rebellion, Historical Fiction of Eighteenth- Century Vietnam," that covers a bloody civil war from 1770 to 1802. Find more about it at TheTaySonRebellion.com, also known as, DavidLindsayJr.com.
David Lindsay is currently writing about Climate Change and the Sixth Extinction., as well as singing and performing a "folk concert" on Climate Change and the Sixth Extinction.
He can be reached at daljr37(at)gmail.com.